Widows speak out in wake of officer-involved shootings

Published 4:00 am, Friday, August 19, 2005

Sobbing uncontrollably and struggling for strength to speak, two women widowed by Dublin police begged Friday for their husbands return as their attorney demanded a grand jury probe into the shooting that killed them.

Surrounded by supporters waving signs reading We stand with you and Deadly force should be a last resort, the women and Korean American community leaders lambasted police for what they called cultural and linguistic insensitivity that led to the citys first fatal officer-involved shooting.

This is totally unfair, said Yang Lim Oh, whose husband, Kwang Tae Lee, was shot Aug. 11 when he reportedly ignored an officers demand to drop his knife. She spoke in Korean through an interpreter. I lost my husband for no reason. Please have my husband come back to me. I cannot live without my husband.

The deaths of Lee, 61, and his brother-in-law, Richard Kim, 49, have galvanized the Korean American community. Local leaders joined the widows at a Castro Valley mortuary where the funeral for both men was held Friday night, saying police overreacted and that the disagreement between relatives could have been resolved peacefully.

This was way out of control, said, Jonathan Bae, the El Cerrito attorney who is representing the widows and wants a grand jury investigation on the grounds that the officers used excessive force. This negligent killing never should have happened.

Jee Kim, Kims widow, collapsed before she spoke; friends helped her to a seat and covered her with a blanket. Later, she said through the translator, I have no strength to say anything. I cannot talk any more, sorry.

Lee was armed with a six-inch kitchen knife when he chased Kim into Kims home on Innisbrook Way, according to police. Kim took refuge inside a bedroom and braced the door with his body.

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Officers David Taylor and Tara Russell, summoned by reports of an argument and a womans screams, found Lee trying to get into the bedroom and fatally shot him when he reportedly refused to drop the knife. One of the bullets penetrated the bedroom door and struck Kim; he died Sunday.

Bae declined to say what led to the argument between Lee and Kim and would not answer questions about whether he believed Lee posed a threat to the officers or others.

Dublin police Lt. Glenn Moon said Jee Kim was present during the confrontation and appeared to be translating the officers commands, as neither officer speaks Korean. When the officers shot Lee, they didnt know where Mr. Kim was, Moon said.

Moon said Lee, Oh and Richard Kim appeared to be drunk, while Jee Kim appeared to be sober and was the only one present who spoke English.

Dublin officers carry pepper spray but not Tasers, which fire darts that incapacitate suspects with an electric shock, because the effectiveness of the weapons is still being reviewed.

In interviews this week, experts on police shootings said the Dublin incident was a nightmarish scenario unusual, but with similarities to confrontations between officers and armed suspects who have taken hostages.

Officers have every right to confront a suspect they believe intends to hurt someone, said David Klinger, a former police officer now an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri in St. Louis. As a rookie Los Angeles police officer, Klinger in 1981 fatally shot a man who had attacked his partner with a knife.

You cannot stand down and wait, and you must take action to protect this potential victim, he said. Having made that decision, officers are trained to consider scores of variables during a confrontation, the experts said.

In the Dublin case, they said, such variables include what Jee Kim was telling the officers as the incident unfolded, and whether they could use less-than-lethal force. Officers must also consider whether their gunfire might hit someone other than the suspect.

A well-trained police officer is trained to assess these situations very quickly," said John Burris, an Oakland civil-rights attorney who has sued police departments over their use of force. The standard is: what would an objective, reasonable police officer do in this circumstance?

Geoffrey Alpert, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina who specializes in police use of force, said the key question likely will be whether the Dublin officers acted reasonably to protect their own lives and others  regardless of whether an innocent person was killed.

Its a tough call. Theyre going to look at what the officers knew and what options they had, he said, adding, You cannot judge the shooting by the outcome.

But Hun Kim, executive director of the Korean Community Center of the East Bay, said, It is outrageous that we live in a day and age where we still use deadly force before we de-escalate situations.

I strongly believe there should be a systematic mechanism to prevent this from happening again, Kim said.

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